Entertainment For Lively Minds
The One Thing I Like No One Else Does
Purchased the 3-disc re-issue of "Mad Not Mad" by Madness, an album I remember loving from my youth. An album that the group themselves are seemingly so ashamed of that it is noted by its absence in the shop section of their own website. Percieved wisdom generally is of a band past their peak going through the(over-produced) motions.
Fearing it just an affectation of childhood nostalgia I play the CD and find it is as cherishable now and then. Even despite the 80s production (not as dated as suggested) the songs are fantastic "Yesterday's Men", "Burning The Boats", "Coldest Day", etc. Not a dud among them. It is a great album. So there.
Ever had that feeling that you are the lone sane voice in the wilderness saying "You're all mad deluded fools. You're wrong, I'm right! What you call folly I call genius"? Pray do tell...
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No one I have ever known personally has liked this
Really?
I love it and know dozens of people who rate it very highly. You really need to get out more (or maybe stay in and visit other internet forums such as progressiveears.com, bcb-board.co.uk to name but two).
They clearly don't know
... how it feels ...
Sad, I know........
....but I have had always had a soft spot becuase the date is my birthday.
I love it
It's my favourite Tull album
I once posted here on how much I despise this album...
... there was a distinctly chilly response from annoyed people shocked that I couldn't tell that prog was being satirized.
I wasn't convinced.
Anyone else love Floyd's The Final Cut...
...or is it just me?
I love it
Used to turn the volume up really loud when that missile then explosion happens (I was about 15 then).
Aah!
I love The Final Cut as well as Thick as a Brick! What's wrong with me. Or everybody else.
Yes
I do. Not an easy listen though.
Only I seemed
to like the last Belle & Sebastian album 'The Life Pursuit' and play it much more than their other stuff
BTW Mad Not Mad reissue, why did EMI purposely give it a black spine rather than white like the rest of the series - the idiots?!
No, me too
I reckon Belle and Sebastian's albums have got better with each one, which seems to go against the general opinion. Their new one is on it's way to me at the moment, so let's see if it continues, but for me The Life Pursuit is the best thing they've done so far.
Levitation by Hawkwind
Never heard anyone pass comment on it. It's been listened to steadily by me for the past 27 years or so. Much more melodic than a lot of their stuff.
This one too!
top album...
Did you have it on blue vinyl too?
Me too
Always liked The Final Cut. I'd go on about it, but fuck all that, I gotta get on with these...
Paul
'Wings Wild Life'.....prefer it to the much slicker 'Band On The Run'.
Wings Wild Life is fantastic
... A lovely, vibey record and worth it for "Tomorrow" alone. But does anyone love Red Rose Speedway?
I love Wings Wild Life
especially Some People Never Know, Love Is Strange and the title track. In the recent Mojo mag interview Macca all but disowned the album, but I bought it on the week of release and I've always liked it.
He appeared to distance himself from Red Rose Speedway too, but that's another favourite in our house. Especially the medley!
3rd best Wings album
2nd is "Band On The Run". How about "Back To The Egg" as number one? Any takers?
There are quite a number
of Back To The Egg enthusiasts about these parts, myself included.
I like nearly all of Macca's albums
except for Off The Ground and Press To Play which are just a thumbs aloft too far.
Alone among almost everyone I've ever met, I'm not ashamed to admit to enjoying parts of this Lennon album:
redrose
"my love," "little lamb," are great. so is "get on the right thing," which was a holdover from ram. a number of folks around here seem to like the side two medley -- never could get into that one. it's like the opposite of the abbey road medley -- it's underproduced, repetitive, generally boring.
"Mad Not Mad" by Madness Might Have Been Aluded To...
..by Suggs on his radio show on Sunday. Interviewing Tilbrook and Difford of Squeeze they are re-recording their old tracks because they have no control over th originals as someone else owns them. Suggs aluded to being in the same boat with some of the Madness recordings but didn't specify which ones.
Zarjazz
Wasn't MNM the first album on their own label? If anything I'd have thought that this would be the one album they had the most control over?
Zarjazz = label?
I think it was just a vanity imprint created for them by Virgin. I think Mad Not Mad is reasonably well-thought of and remembered, the really forgotten one is "The Madness" which came afterwards.
Nearly all recording contracts stipulate that the recordings are owned by the label. D&T from Squeeze are far from alone in that.
utter madness
it was more the fact that the band themselves had seemingly disowned it
I've rummaged through my archives
and uncovered the NME's Top 100 albums, from 30th November 1985.
Nestling at No 56 (in a chart topped by Marvin Gaye's What's Going On) is Mad Not Mad. No other Madness album features in the chart.
Neil Young
In terms of swimming against the tide of popular opinion I am always comforted in my admiration for 'Trans' secure in the knowledge that a friend of mine actually rates 'Landing On Water'.
Gold Against The Soul
Bloated, overproduced and naff is the charge. Balls, say I. The Manics' second best record, is what it is. And given that their best is the almost peerless "The Holy Bible", that's some statement.
First best in my humble
First best in my humble opinion.
Mine too
Actually, the only one I ever listened too. Not a fan of their 'fit obscure lyrics scanning weirdly into power pop songs' but I fell in love with this record.
It was on cassette though. Maybe I'll revisit and come back to you.
Pop this opinion on ice for me.
Which reminds me
Have you listened to Journal for Plague Lovers and Postcards from a Young Man yet? I want your report on my desk by Monday, thanks.
You're right about the Holy Bible though. 4st 7lbs came up on shuffle this morning. The coda had me almost weeping on the bus.
Oh, and until recently...
...I thought I was Kenickie's only proper remaining fan. Bless the "lesser Britpop" thread.
Speaking of whom...
Well, Kenickie-related at least: Here's the lovely Lauren Laverne fronting Mint Royale. Fun video, full of bathos, particularly her singing to the camera against a backdrop of bog rolls.
Kenickie
Their drummer Johnny X (Pete Gofton) is still musically active round here. Up until recently he was playing geetar for up-and-coming Sunderland quintet Frankie & The Heartstrings.
Pete...
...was at Durham at the same time as me, in the year above. He was at the next college down the road - there was a funny story about him getting in trouble with his department for missing a tutorial, purportedly for illness, and the lecturer then seeing him knocking seven bells out of his drum kit on live telly.
I remain deeply in love with his sister.
Oh well here I go again
I like Tarkus
Nobody else does, I know that.
I know everything that's wrong with it - Emerson racing away while the "rhythm section" barely keeps up, Lake's preposterous lyrics etc etc
But I still like it.
So there.
It's OK, I've got my coat but thanks anyway...
I like Tarkus
It's a good laugh. You want to know how far up its own arse rock music can go? Look no further! Who said we could only enjoy records for their worthiness. I must have missed the memo.
(See also Backwards7's Moon Sausage thread)
Home
By Hothouse Flowers. One of my favourites that no one seems to mention. Absolutely love it.
Down in Albion
I love Babyshambles first record
It sounds incredibly fresh and exciting - like four people playing in a room rather than some horribly pro-tooled Killers type of thing. Unpredictable, alive and thrilling
Is everybody on the floor? We put some energy into this place.
I'm pretty certain that I'm the only fanatic of Scooter on this blog. If there are any others I'd imgaine they're being ironic.
Just to give you an idea, I have everything they've ever done, and have seen them live twice. The second time I went on my own because no one would go with me, and travelled from my home in London to Birmingham, as they weren't playing in Das Kapital.
Scooter: Gods.
Blind Melon
Their eponymous album is superb. All riffs and noodley guitars. Very out of character for me but I love every last note.
Red Box
The second album - Motive. No-one else has even got it, let alone likes it. Even their Moms don't like it.
Plenty
I'm not entirely sure anyone shares my passion for German new wave of the Eighties or Dutch glam rock, more's the pity.
Hmmm
Ina Deter? Bap? Clowns und Helden? Udo Lindenberg?? Don't know if they count as new wave.
The luscious
Kate Bush ' The Dreaming' I'm not alone in liking this, but I am one of a select band of only about 60,000 people who bought it when it was first released (apparently) Oh, and I like 'Avatar' I do seem to be in a minority there.
Stingray
by Joe Cocker. Made in the mid 70's with some session guys mainly from the band Stuff: Cornell Dupree, Steve Gadd, Richard Tee. Nice guest spots from Albert Lee, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Bramlett. Never gets mentioned in his list of achievements. For years it wasn't even available on CD. The playing is wonderfully understated, and Joe's singing on it is just stupendous. I listen to this every now and then, and the bits that made my hairs stand up the first time I heard it, still do today
The Buggles
Their first album, "The Plastic Age".....it`s absolutely ace!! I love every track and I don`t know anyone else who has it.
Have It.
Used to play it loads in the good old days. I find Trev's productions a bit too much now. (I can only take "Lexicon Of Love" one song at a time).
But "Clean Clean" will always rock
I have!
I have it on cassette tape and was an early favourite of mine. I think the Buggles suffered from Dominant First Single Syndrome, unfortunately.
The title track (and follow-up single) features this splendid line:
"they sent the heart police
to put you under cardiac arrest"
I think Trevor Horn was a bit like Mike Batt in that he really could write a tune and was an excellent musician, but when it comes to being a pop star - they lacked the necessary je ne sais quoi.
"they lacked the necessary je ne sais quoi"
Je pense que je sais "le quoi."
M. Horn et M. Batt, ils were both droit ugly buggers. Et, certainment, c'etait non way les joiles filles would fancy them evenment up un avenue de back dans le noir.
Et alors, M Batt et decouvre Katie Melua qui est tres jolie mais malheuresement pour M Batt quelques people dit qu'elle boit from l'autre cote de le tasse.
tres amusant!
Another ugly speccy reccy producer who had a go at being a pop star was Thomas Dolby.
I used to really like his debut "The Golden Age Of Wireless". Just me, it seemed.
Haven't heard it in years so I'm not sure I'd still stand over that opinion...
Mais...
...il est beaucoup de pop stars avec un visage comme le derriere d'un chien (et, qulelque fois, quatre les yeux!). Elvis Costello, pour example, printemps a ma tete.
et, aussi, avez-vous vu sa femme ???
je voudrais, pas vous ?
C'est vrai.
Elvis Costello, il a casse le baton d'emmerdement parce qu'il a ce utiliser beacoup de temps.
Clean Clean!
Great song......favourite line.."helmet open where the world came in" and that line from Plastic Age itself is top.
It`s a great album!!
I love Yoko Ono and I don't care who knows it
Black-eyed Peas
I think I Gotta A Feeling is a truly great pop song. I doubt many here agree.
Always loved 'Mad Not Mad'...
Pre-Norton Folgate I think it's Madness' most consistent album. Granted the production is a bit shiny, but the songs are great; mature and world-weary certainly, although their version of The Sweetest Girl is horrible: you can almost hear the band grinding to a halt as an entity.
Yesterday's Men is fantastic though. I reckon it's their best single (described in Record Mirror, if I remember rightly, as like finding out that your grubby snot-nosed kid brother has grown into a man). Pity the record buying public didn't take to it.
I must have Cuban blood in me
because these two beauts rock the pants offa me. Only I know how good they are.